National

California's Central Valley retains its title as home to the worst air in America, according to the American Lung Association's "State of the Air" assessment for 2013 — but, like other cities and counties, has still shown improvement in air quality.

Reports that Tsarnaev was added to the government's terror watch list seems to bolster the argument that the marathon bombing is the result of FBI error. But that revisionism fails to take into account the scale and complexity of terror investigations.

Margie Carranza and her 71-year-old mother had more than 100 rounds pumped into their blue pickup — despite the fact that it was a completely different model and color than the ex-cop on the loose. That's why they're getting four times the still controversial reward total.

After much speculation, the Justice Department pulled back the curtain on its plan to recoup some of the dozens of millions of dollars that the government spent sponsoring confessed cheater Lance Armstrong.

Five days after he was identified and arrested for allegedly mailing ricin-laced envelopes to President Obama, Senator Roger Wicker, and Mississippi judge Sadie Holland — and one day after FBI agents failed to find any ricin-making equipment in his house — Mississippi resident Paul Kevin Curtis has been released from custody. And it gets even weirder than that.

Newsweekon the Deepwater Horizon spill, The New Republic on celebrating Earth Day, The Washington Post on Obama's environmental record, Bloomberg Businessweek on foreign investment in U.S. oil shales, and New Geography on California's would-be fracking boom.

Putting aside the argument of whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should even qualify as an enemy combatant, an analysis of previous terrorism prosecutions shows a remarkable track record for civilian courts, which have prosecuted both large and small crimes with great efficiency and success.

Even as the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev bedside hearings continue and the story of the brothers' motives comes into view — even as the terror prosecution begins of a patient now in fair condition — vivid details are beginning to emerge about a night of mayhem.

In a letter responding to the State Department's draft environmental assessment for the Keystone XL pipeline, the EPA finds several areas it deems insufficient. Perhaps the third time's the charm on State doing something about it.

Michael Chertoff and Dallas Lawrence on social media helping a manhunt, Erwin Chemerinsky on the constitutional rights of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Richard Overy on the use of the word 'Nazi,' John Villasenor on ownership and Google Glass, and William Germano on writing for readers.

On its front page today, The New York Times criticizes President Obama for failing to hold Democrats who voted against the gun compromise accountable. But the president's bigger challenge may have been overestimating their empathy.

With the dedication ceremony of his presidential library in Dallas less than two days away, George W. Bush just got another reason to feel pleased: He's slightly less unpopular than he used to be. For that, he can thank Democrats.

On Monday night, multiple reports and government charges combined to shed new light on the investigation into Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's alleged roles in last week's terrorist attack. The new information doesn't make either brother looks less guilty — or suggest that much could have been done to stop them.

The user behind the amateur sleuth page followed 'round the world is now admitting, in an interview with The Atlantic Wire, that his communal photo hunt was "doomed from the start" but that Reddit's community is seeking answers — not about the ongoing investigation so much as about what went right... and what went so very wrong.

The new WMD charge against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could result in the death penalty, raising a strange question in a case sure to be full of precedents in how America prosecutes terrorism: Do bombs made in kitchen pressure cookers now count as weapons of mass destruction?

Thomson Reuters could handle Matthew Keys being indicted on federal hacking charges. But after a week in which he was harshly criticized for inaccurate tweets to his 35,000-plus followers about the Boston attacks — and in which he had a public spat with his boss — Keys finds himself out of a job.

In the wake of the Boston bombings, the attention starved hate group was planning to picket the funeral of Krystle Campbell, the 29-year-old victim of the marathon attack. And it was all going so well until — well, until Anonymous and the Boston Teamsters got involved.

Despite allegations that he knew about a rape and tried to protect his players who committed it, despite widespread criticism that he didn't punish his team enough and that he should be fired, and despite a grand jury that could charge him looming next week, Reno Saccocia has been approved for a two-year administrative contract, the city superintendent confirmed to The Atlantic Wire Monday afternoon.

From an apparent misspelling by the FBI to alarm in the Muslim community and the obtaining of illegal firearms, the alleged bombers' may have been lucky in escaping their mistakes — and that may be the early if uneasy answer in a case that became official as the U.S. charged Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in his hospital bed Monday.